Sol. Pankaj Sharma has been appointed as the ambassador and India’s permanent representative to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament (UNCD) in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr Sharma will replace Amandeep Gill. He is currently the joint secretary (Disarmament and International Security Division) in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Sol. The 3rd Youth Olympic Games has officially begun at Buenos Aires, Argentina. 16-year-old Manu Bhaker is leading the Indian team in the opening ceremony as the flag-bearer of the Indian contingent for the games.

Sol. Sanjay Verma, a 1990 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, has been appointed as India’s Ambassador to Spain. He is currently the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. He has been appointed as India’s Ambassador to Spain.

Sol. Reliance Health Insurance, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital, has received final approval from IRDAI for its new health insurance business. Reliance Capital has designated Ravi Viswanath, who has over two decades of global experience in health insurance, as CEO of the new health insurance company.

Sol. Apple displaced Google to become the top brand in the world in 2018 while Facebook, mired in data breach controversies, fell to ninth place in the top 100 brands globally. According to global brand consultancy Interbrand’s “Best 100 Global Brands 2018” report, Amazon achieved a 56% growth to become the third top brand globally.

Sol. The National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) MD and CEO VikramLimaye has been appointed the chairman of the working committee and director on the board by the international industry body–World Federation of Exchanges (WFE).

Sol. To promote innovative cooperation between students of India and Russia, an MoU was exchanged between India’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and the Russian Federation’s SIRIUS Educational Foundation in the presence of the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, in New Delhi.